Talk:Steven Brust

Interesting fact: "Táltos" is an old hungarian name for a kind of shaman / magician / holy person. --grin 16:54, 2004 Feb 23 (UTC)

I confirmed that and included it. JerryFriedman

Enchantress/Sethra Lavode ?

Please note that I might have gotten totally confused and that The Enchantress of Dzur Mountain might be a discarded working-title for Sethra Lavode. I have tried to check but evidence is mixed. At least one site is convinced there's a fourth volume; various others say Sethra Lavode is the third and final volume. --Phil | Talk 09:08, Mar 18, 2004 (UTC)

Indeed, Enchantress... was a working title. The word is that Brust's editor thought that Dzur being hard to pronounce might hurt sales.

I see you've fixed my error. Thanks. --Phil | Talk 18:17, Mar 18, 2004 (UTC)

The deletion of TEoDM was confirmed by Brust on the Dragaera mailing list. It's nice to have authoritative information. Hey, who was that masked man? JerryFriedman

Styles

By my count, five of the nine Vlad novels have straightforward first-person narration by Vlad (Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Phoenix, and Issola), so it seems like an exaggeration to say that "almost all" these novels are written in different styles. Or am I missing something? --JerryFriedman 01:53, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

• I would agree that almost all is not correct. There are different styles though. One is written from Rocza's point of view, Dragon seamless switches contexts in the middle of most chapthers. Orca is written from Kiera's point of view. I think Taltos has the beginning of every chapter that merges to the end of the novel with different time lines. That's enough in my book to say "a lot"  :) Wikibofh 04:45, August 8, 2005 (UTC)

Weblog defunct?

Brust's weblog appears broken today. I have never been to his site before and I was wondering if he still keeps it, or if the weblog has been down for some time (in which case we should change the article to reflect he no longer is a blogger)? Kit 19:10, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

• The computer that hosts his website went completely down. It was rebuilt, but they have not fixed the weblog yet. Right now he is using LJ. It can be found here. Wikibofh 19:28, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

DZUR

His latest book Dzur comes out 8-August-2006; it is already available for ordering. This can be verified on Amazon.com. Since I know that anyone looking in here is a fan of Steven's... I'll update the other neat thing about DZUR as soon as it posts officially. Then you won't have to take my word for it.

I put this note up because I should like the year for DZUR to stay up. Please stop taking it down. Thanks! - Chica

Hi Chica. I altered the article to include the actual date and a link to the Amazon page for a source, so no one will question the date. I will keep an eye on things here for you, too. I can hardly wait for Dzur! Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 17:30, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, Kit! - Chica

DZUR was chosen for the new logo deal between Tor and the Science Fiction Channel. It's called "A Sci Fi Essential Book" and bears that as well as the Sci Fi logo. Every month one Tor book will be chosen. More info can be found on the Tor.com website. This program began July 2005.

Anyone want to write that up all poetically for the article? Pretty please...

- Chica

• The press release doesn't mention Dzur at all. PDF of it is here Do you have a different source? Wikibofh_(talk) 05:02, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes. I have the cover itself for DZUR.  :> I have been waiting for the SciFi web calendar to <bleeping> add the 2006 books. They haven't put them up as of my last search. grrr. Actually, neither has Tor...

- Chica

That press release looks quite old. As to sourcing, first off I am looking at a copy of the dust jacket right now and it has the logo. The cover shown on Amazon has the logo as well. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 07:07, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

How's that, Chica? Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 07:12, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

Beautiful! Thank you, Kit. I may have to prod them about the calendar.

BTW, if any of you want to add a convention to the SciFi calendar, they have a webform for that. May help if you're trying attract more people.  :> I'm just sayin' is all.

- Chica

Agyar

I've just read Agyar - what is the narrator? I didn't spot the term vampire in the book.--80.4.252.114 15:25, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

The narrator is a vampire, it's just a subtle book. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 17:23, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I enjoyed it. I've been looking for good horror for a few months, and this is the first worthwhile read. It was hard to begin with, and by the end I thought maybe I'd missed something because of various distractions I had when I started on the book. Half-way through, I was totting up the vampirisms to see if the equation would fit, but I suppose it's beside the point. One criticism: I was confused about whether, in the final scene, the narrator was expecting to survive - the reference to "autopsy" forced me to read back over the previous pages, and it was only the epilogue that put my panicked brain at ease. At various points I got the impression that American Psycho was an influence (minus the scenes of sex and gore) - facile comparison? Will re-read. Perhaps you could give me hints about these clever author's clues the article mentions - is the title Agyar one of them? I am a slow, slothful --shtove 22:16, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

It's been a few years since I reread the book. I never took the narrator to be a conventional vampire but more read the novel as a sort of built around the bare bones of the myth -- predator, drinks people's essence in some way, hard to kill, doesn't like daylight... but it's definitely not exactly the vampire we've grown familiar with. I expect the title is a clue but I don't know the answer. No idea about the comparison to American Psycho as I haven't read it myself, interesting though. If I reread the book anytime soon (might) and see anything of note I'll let you know or post here. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 03:56, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Not to derail from the topic of this page, but as far as horror goes my favorites are S. P. Somtow's Vampire Junction and Moon Dance and Kim Newman's Anno Dracula. Kit O'Connell (Todfox: user / talk / contribs) 03:58, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Shtove, the trick about the narrator is - that the book is from different points of view. That is another subtle feature. Don't fash yourself, but that is the disparity. Some time after I first read it, I picked it up again, and reread the two parts that belong to the other character. That's when I finally realized two narrators existed.

AGYAR, according to the Magyar-Angol dictionary, means tusk or fang. So, yes, if you speak Hungarian (or have the translation) it'd be a clue.  :> I don't speak Hungarian...

- Chica

Chica, thanks for the dual-narration point. In response, I have a simple question: WHAT??? On second thoughts, just give me a hint and I will reread. And BTW - what do you youngsters mean by fash?--shtove 00:52, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Shtove, "fash" is an archaic word I picked up. Just means getting excited or upset.  :> Elizabethan English.

I'd say, since you've read the book - go back and read it again. Cheat. Read the epilogue first, then read the prologue (and the remainder) in order. Kit's right, it's subtle; and I'd agree that it's like the bare bones of the myth. AGYAR is one of my favorites. Also, if you haven't read Roger Zelazny's _Frost and Fire_, you may want to read that. Roger wrote a really neat short story ("Dayblood") about vampires and predators. I don't know whether that influenced AGYAR or not.

- Chica

I rather thought "fash" was Scots. (Where hae ye been, me bonny lad? Dinna fash yersel'!) Chica probably picked it up where I did, reading old Scots ballads. Considering the decline of good literary education, I'd say that Shtove is the younker here. :.)

As for the dual narrator, I thought it was immediately obvious from the change in voice and tone of the bookending chapters? And who else could be writing the last chapter? What we're doing when we pick up Agyar is, we're picking up a typescript left after the bookending narrator has added (ahem) its own pages—just as (mumble) had picked up the typescript at the beginning while getting used to (um) its new condition and the ghost. Another PJF device to frighten and confuse. → (AllanBz ✍) 07:58, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I first learnt "fash" from Christopher Stasheff.  :> But no, it wasn't immediately obvious to me; when I got to the end, I realized it was a frame around the rest of the story. Before that, I thought Our Hero was feeling incredibly bitter in the prolog, and then went into the story.  :>

- Chica

It's been ages since I read those! By the way, a "gallowglass" is a Scots mercenary. → (AllanBz ✍) 12:42, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Short stories added & other news

Those are all the anthologies I know of. If any of the stories got reprinted, then I missed the reprints. Same applies to anything printed in other magazines.

- Chica

Brokedown Palace will be reprinted! Steve is page-proofing the Orb paperback now: This was noted on his 4-April-2006 weblog. Per Amazon, the release date is September 5, 2006.

All of Steve's titles will therefore be in print. :D

According to Tor, Brokedown Palace will be an Orb trade paperback. Please note that the same site erroneously lists "Dragon" as Steve's August '06 book, instead of "Dzur", however. (http://www.tor.com/schedule.html#top)

- Chica

Mrm. I'll probably erase this subsection of Discussion after 9-30-06.

=Chica= 08:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)Chica

Firefly news?

Any of you see this yet? Paragraph two. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29#Books

I can't find a text version of the interview KRAD did, saying that two Firefly books were to be published. If any of you do, please post the link here. No news from Pocket Books about Steve's Firefly submission yet; it was submitted in October 2005, per Steve's weblog.

- Chica

Hmmm. (10-May-2006) All the Firefly books submitted went to Joss. http://www.serenitymovie.org/browncoats/forums/index.php?showtopic=5986

http://www.serenitymovie.org/browncoats/forums/index.php?showtopic=626 (January 2006 discussion)

- Chica

Devera

Can we mention in the article that Devera [edit]. Not sure if it's too much of a spoiler..?  :)

-- Hallo, anonymous one. (I post without a Wiki-ID as well; I'm not heckling.) No, I wouldn't mention that. Let people read. Anything regarding Devera is better left to the reader's own discovery. Much of Steve's style relies on his masterful sleight-of-hand. Remember: The more is told beforehand, the less to discover - and what fun is that?

What you're thinking about is the sort of detail that fans share between themselves. Are you on the Dragaera mailing list? Not to mention the many blogs, discussion groups, etc.  :]

- Chica

Heh - Good point. :) Thanks for the guidance. Have read & re-read Taltos, the first compendium many times, only to recently discover there are many more books in the series.. Yay! Am looking at the list now.. - Gareth

My pleasure, Gareth. Welcome! Hope to see you on the list sometime.

- Chica